Welcome to My Messy House

Getting Organized by Stephanie Winston is the very first organizing book I ever read. My dad, who is a bit of a messie, had that book while I was a teenager. After I moved out, I bought my own copy. I love the ideas this book has, especially for kitchens and small spaces. This book is just plain fun to read, too.

Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell and the Clean Team is truly a great book
if you want to get very good and very efficient at cleaning. He can clean
a house from top to bottom in two hours, and so can you when you follow
his instructions. If you can only buy one cleaning book, this should be
it!

The tips in this book will be difficult to put into practice until you have decluttered pretty significantly. Campbell’s methods resemble Sandra Felton’s Mt. Vernon method, although her method is for decluttering only, while his is for cleaning only. It would make sense, though, that if you work well with the Mt. Vernon method, that you would also work well with Campbell’s methodical, but fast method.

Campbell gives great advice for what sort of cleaning supplies you should have. Since he is a professional cleaner, he would know what products get things the cleanest… the fastest. I believe the concept of the popular Swiffer mop resembles his Sh-mop, although the Sh-mop heads are washable and reusable. One thing I want to put into practice is the cleaning apron. I think that alone will make a big difference in my cleaning speed.

If you’ve read this book, feel free to comment below!

If you’re like me, one of your biggest cleaning hurdles is what you do when you are actually trying to clean. Once you have overcome your procrastination and hoarding tendencies, you still might be sabotaging your efforts to have a clean house.

Does this sound familiar? You have a visitor coming over at short notice, or you’re holding a birthday party for a child. You’re going to have company and you want your house to look its best. Things are looking okay, except for a couple of coats, some magazines, some mail, maybe some toys. Do you pick everything up (maybe in a laundry basket or a dishpan) and stash the bin somewhere until after the event? Here’s the important question: do you have more than one such bin from more than one such cleaning frenzy?

Obviously, the BEST thing to do is to keep the house tidy enough to where you never have to do a “Dash and Stash.” But let’s be honest here. We’re messies. Something is going to come along, maybe after you’ve been sick, or unmotivated, or after you’ve had a crisis that has kept you from being able to do that upkeep. Or maybe you’re still digging out from your clutter problem. Maybe your home is more than just a little messie. Sometimes, Dash and Stash seems to be the only option.

Two things will make a difference. Either get committed to cleaning out the Dash and Stash bin very quickly after such a cleaning frenzy, or figure out how to do an Emergency Clean Sweep without a Dash and Stash.

When you Dash and Stash, one of the most important things you can do is roughly categorize the items. Don’t stash dishes, clothes, books, toys, trash, and papers in the same box!

My advice would be to first dash around and grab all the dishes and trash. It will help to carry a dishpan and have a plastic grocery bag looped around your wrist while you do this step. Once you have all the visible trash and dishes, put the dishpan and trash-bag in an accessible place. You might still need them.

Now, grab a laundry basket (or another bag, if you must) and gather all the clothes. It’s likely there are socks in unlikely places, like in the couch or under the entertainment center. Don’t bother to move any furniture, just grab what you can see. Put the clothes wherever you keep laundry, the closer to the washer, the better.

Now, grab a bin, box, or tote and gather all the toys (if you live with kids.) Plop the bin in the owners’ room(s) and give the owners a deadline to clean it out (unless they’re babies.)

Grab all the books and put them on a shelf as neatly as you can.

NOW you’re ready to stash. Sort of. As you’re grabbing the magazines and papers that are left after the other rounds, cull all the obvious trash (empty envelopes, advertising fliers, magazine subscription cards, etc. Trust me, you’re not missing out on anything… new ads will flow in pretty quickly.) Put the rest of the papers and magazines in your bin.

If you really don’t have time to presort, then it’s extra important that you go through the box every day and don’t let it sit.

You can do Dash and Stash if you make sure the bin doesn’t stay full for very long after the cleaning. Set yourself a time limit. You could vow to clean out the bin within a day, or you could give yourself a full month. Whatever time works for you… the important thing is to work within your own limitations. After the event, you can set the bin in a prominent place so people can pick out their belongings and put them away in the right place. You can pick at it, pulling one thing out every time you go by and putting it in its proper place. Or you can add it to your daily list and devote 15 minutes or so to making sure everything gets put back in the right place.

If you were able to presort, then sorting through the box will be slightly easier. You can go through it with the 5 POP method (5 Pieces of Paper), which will be described in a future article on paperwork. Basically, you grab the top 5 pieces of paper in the bin and sort and file them. That’s it. Do it several times a day and you’ll eventually whittle it down.

A better option for most of us under most circumstances is to avoid doing the Dash and Stash in the first place, if at all possible. ONLY do Dash and Stash for emergencies. Don’t get into the habit of doing them on your regular cleaning schedule. You’ll just set yourself up to be overwhelmed later.

Tools:

Window cleaner (store bought or homemade from water, vinegar, and isopropyl alcohol) in a spray bottle

bucket

Murphy’s oil soap or other wood cleaner

sponge

cleaning cloths (I use diapers)

old toothbrush

squeegee (optional)

These are the instructions for cleaning the insides of windows. If you have the kind of windows that let you clean the outside from inside the house, these instructions will work for you.

First, pull up blinds and move curtains out of the way. (You can wash these at the same time if you have the energy and know how to do it.) Use the sponge and soapy water to wash the wood around the windows. (Squeeze the sponge out well so water won’t leak down on the walls.) Use the toothbrush where needed. Clean the sill as well.

Then, spray the window cleaner on one pane at a time. Use one cloth to wash the window, then use the drier cloth to get up all of the moisture. Windows won’t streak if you keep polishing until they’re dry. Work on one pane at a time, spraying, wiping, and drying.

If you’re washing the outside of the windows from the inside, do all of the insides before starting on the outside.

So many of us feel like we’re buried under piles of laundry. We have them in the bathroom, the bedroom, the laundry room, piled on the couch waiting to be folded… there’s laundry everywhere! There are many reasons laundry piles up like that: too many clothes, too little time, simple procrastination. You can solve your laundry problems with some simple time management and motivation.

First, try to dig out of the pile of dirty laundry. The easiest, and fastest way to do it is to take the whole pile to the laundromat. You can whip out all that laundry in just a few hours, and you can take some time for yourself to read a magazine or something. At this time of year, you can use that time to address greeting cards and write letters.

While you’re at the laundromat, make sure you fold everything. Bring hangers with you to hang the closet clothes. When you get home, momentum will make it easy to get the stuff put away in dressers and closets.

Now that the laundry is caught up, you can look at ways to cut it down. I couldn’t believe it when I saw a magazine article recommend to buy more socks and undies to cut down on laundry. The more clothes you have, the more it piles up! It’s tempting to keep putting off the laundry because you still have enough clean clothes to scrape by.

One way to cut down on laundry time is to cut down on clothes. One of my friends who recently pared down her family’s clothes found that she has gone from doing five loads of laundry a week to three! Start by giving away the clothes that don’t fit. They tend to sneak into the laundry room when they’re tried on and rejected. (If you want to keep some clothes because you plan to diet into them, put them in a box and mark a date on them. If they don’t fit on that date, give them away.) Then, give away the clothes that you and your kids just don’t like. You know, the clothes that tell you it’s laundry day because you’re forced to wear them. Get those out. If you’re like me, you probably still have a ton of clothes left. This is the point to be ruthless.

Put together 7 or 8 outfits for yourself and each of your kids. You may need to put together 7 work/ school/ church outfits and 4-5 play outfits. Allow some extra t-shirts, shorts, sweaters, and sweaters. (maybe 4 per person?) Then, give away the rest. (Or, if you have the room, box them up to rotate your wardrobe every few months.) The point is to keep your and your kids’ wardrobes small.

Whether or not you reduce your wardrobe, another way to take control of laundry is to come up with a system for doing it. Only you know what is acceptable for your lifestyle and family.

Try to keep at least two laundry baskets in a central location to collect dirty clothes. Train your family to put lights in one basket and darks in the other. This cuts down on your sorting time immensely.

Some people like to do all of their laundry once a week. They’ll devote an entire Saturday to this. I did this when I was single, and it worked really well, since it was only two loads, lights and darks. With a large family, or with a small baby, this might take the entire day. Of course, you can do other things at the same time, but you still have 6 or 7 loads of laundry to fold on one day.

Other people like to make it part of their morning routine to start a load of laundry in the washer. (Do this after everyone has showered.) If you don’t like to leave appliances running while you’re gone for the day, then set the washer up before you go to work so that all you have to do when you get home is start it. If you start your laundry first thing in the morning, then you can throw it in the dryer as soon as you get home (or, if you stay home during the day, throw it in the dryer at your leisure.)

Always fold the laundry the same day you wash and dry it. This prevents wrinkles and it prevents clean clothes pile-up on the living room couch. (I don’t even fold my laundry on the living room couch. I fold it on the dryer, so it doesn’t even leave the laundry room unfolded.)

Now that your dressers and closets are unclogged, putting clothes away will be easy. You can even get your children, over about the age of four, to put their own clothes away.

When you’re buying new clothes, make sure you really need them. Also, make life easier for yourself by buying distinctive socks and underwear for each person. Son number 1 could have tall tube socks with all gray bottoms, while son number two can have short tube socks with gray heels and toes. Your husband can wear plain white tube socks while you wear peds or anklets. Always buy the same type, though, so you don’t have to fuss with matching socks. Same with underwear. Make sure each person’s underwear is distinctive, especially if you have two kids that are the same size.

Keep a garbage bag by your washer and dryer so you can instantly throw away ruined and stained clothes. There’s no reason for those things to end up back in circulation, even as rags (I use cloth diapers as my rags.) Keep a donation box near the dryer so after you wash something that doesn’t fit any more, you can fold it and put it right into the donation box. When the box is full, take it to a donation place.

Make sure you store out of season clothes in a separate place from the current clothes. If not, your kids will be throwing clean out of season clothes into the clothes basket instead of neatly refolding them and putting them away.

You can win over your laundry. Just implement one or two of these tips at a time. If it’s too frightening to give away that many clothes, commit to giving away one or two items a week. Or commit to giving away one item when you bring a new one in. It can be done!